Washington, DC political money — 2008 cycle

Washington, DC × 2008: the join

$2,517,792 is the overlap of two FEC dimensions: contributor city WASHINGTON with state DC, and election cycle 2008. The match is $2,517,792 across 2,027 itemized contribution rows. The city side of the table, covering every cycle in the aggregate, is $3,742,866,190. 2008 therefore accounts for 0.07% of Washington, DC itemized individual dollars in these facts. The remaining $3,740,348,398 (99.93%) was itemized in other cycles under the same city label.

This is not a restatement of Washington, DC. That hub mixes 2008 with every other even-year window filed under WASHINGTON. It is also not a restatement of the 2008 election cycle hub, which mixes Washington, DC with every other donor city in the United States. The 2,027 rows and $2,517,792 exist only where both filters are true. Correlation is not causation: a city code plus a cycle year does not prove why someone gave.

FEC individual contribution files record the contributor's city as entered on the itemized receipt. Spellings and suburb-versus-city choices can split a metro across multiple city pages. Washington, DC here is the string that survived aggregation as WASHINGTON in DC. 2008 is a presidential FEC cycle: a two-year window that includes a presidential general election. That calendar fact does not explain why Washington, DC donors itemized $2,517,792. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by donor city and election cycle.

All-cycle Washington, DC versus this window

The city aggregate for Washington, DC is $3,742,866,190 in itemized individual contributions. That figure is the running total for this city label across cycles, not a single-year census and not a count of unique residents. It includes the $2,517,792 from 2008 and the $3,740,348,398 from every other cycle in the same city file. State-level DC campaign-finance pages still mix Washington with every other city in DC.

The stored city is Washington in the District of Columbia. Arlington, Alexandria, and Bethesda are not rolled into WASHINGTON. State DC stays on the citation so Washington, DC is not merged with a same-named place in another state. $3,742,866,190 is the DC key only. For Washington, DC, the city stack is $3,742,866,190 while this cycle is $2,517,792 (0.07%). Use the city hub for Washington, DC without a year filter; use this tie for Washington in 2008. Donor city is not recipient city: committees that received these gifts can file anywhere in the FEC system. A DC city code is not a Virginia or Maryland suburb. State DC stays on the citation.

What the 2008 presidential window holds for Washington

Federal election cycles are two-year windows on FEC.gov. The 2008 cycle is the Commission's cycle tag on itemized receipts, not a calendar year of January gifts only. Inside that window, Washington, DC donors itemized $2,517,792 on 2,027 contribution records. Dividing dollars by rows gives a mean of about $1,242 per itemized gift. That mean is an arithmetic average of rows, not a typical donor and not a median. This page does not publish a median or a unique-donor count.

The national 2008 hub still includes every other city. State pages for DC still include every other cycle. Only this join isolates Washington × 2008. Unitemized contributions below the FEC itemization threshold are omitted. Independent expenditures and committee-to-committee transfers are other tables. A small share of a large city book can still be hundreds of thousands of itemized dollars. 2,027 rows and a mean near $1,242 describe this pair only. Do not treat a tiny percentage as a quiet city; later cycles in the same string can dwarf $2,517,792. This URL is the intersection only.

A 0.07% cut of the Washington stack

0.07% of $3,742,866,190 is a slice of the city book, not a ranking against other cities. Put another way, about 0.07% of Washington, DC's itemized individual dollars in this aggregate were filed in 2008, and about 99.93% were not. Those percentages are $2,517,792 divided by $3,742,866,190 and $3,740,348,398 divided by $3,742,866,190. They are not shares of state totals, national cycle totals, or eligible voters. A $3.74 billion city book next to a $2,517,792 cycle cell is a reminder that cityTotal is all cycles, not a 2008 census of the capital.

Dollar share (0.07%) and row volume (2,027 itemized gifts) are separate facts. This packet does not include a citywide row count across all cycles, so a row-share percentage is not computed. Do not treat 0.07% as Washington's share of the 2008 national cycle, which is a different denominator and is not in these facts. the District of Columbia is a geography note for readers; it is not a Census population weight on $2,517,792.

What $2,517,792 does not measure

2,027 itemized contributions totaling $2,517,792 is the operational definition of this page. The FEC file can list the same household on multiple dates, to multiple committees, and under spelling variants of WASHINGTON. Unique-person counts are not in the packet and are not invented here. Neither is a ranking of Washington versus other DC cities: this join has one geography and one cycle.

Mean gift size of about $1,242 uses only the two numbers in the join: $2,517,792 and 2,027 rows. It is a trivial ratio, not a finding about wealth, turnout, or ideology. Employer and occupation strings on those receipts are other joins. This page does not break $2,517,792 out by occupation, industry, or recipient committee. City labels are filer-entered. A donor who typed WASHINGTON is counted; a nearby suburb they typed instead is not recoded into Washington.

Reading Washington and 2008 together without mixing tables

This page does not rank Washington against other cities and does not treat itemized giving as public opinion in DC. Two columns matched. Contributor city is not campaign city. A DC address does not mean the money supported a DC candidate. Amended reports can move either number. If the live Washington, DC hub or the live 2008 cycle hub disagrees with this prose, the newer FEC extract controls.

Unitemized gifts, independent expenditures, and non-individual sources are omitted. See Washington, DC, the 2008 election cycle, District of Columbia campaign finance, and all FEC ties for the adjacent tables. Dollar figures are FEC itemized individual contribution aggregates. They are not federal spending awards and they do not fund USAspending totals. Source: FEC.gov.

Questions

How much did Washington, DC donors give in the 2008 election cycle?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing Washington, DC total $2,517,792 in the 2008 cycle, across 2,027 contribution records. The same city label totals $3,742,866,190 across all cycles in this aggregate, so 2008 is 0.07% of that city stack. Figures are from FEC.gov city-by-cycle aggregates.

Is the Washington, DC city total only for 2008?

No. The city aggregate of $3,742,866,190 covers every cycle in the table for WASHINGTON. The 2008 filter is $2,517,792 from 2,027 itemized gifts. Other cycles hold $3,740,348,398. Use the city hub for the all-cycle total and this tie page for the 2008 slice.

Did Washington, DC 2008 donations stay in DC?

Not necessarily. Donor city is Washington, DC; recipients can be committees anywhere that file with the FEC. This join does not allocate the $2,517,792 by office, state of the committee, or party. A DC city code is an address field on the individual receipt, not a map of DC races.

How many Washington, DC contributions were itemized in 2008?

2,027 itemized contribution records sum to $2,517,792. That count is rows, not unique donors. The arithmetic mean is about $1,242 per row. Unitemized gifts below the FEC threshold and independent expenditures are not included. Citywide unique-donor counts are not in these facts.